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Running and Flinstone Vitamins…A Perfect Comparison

There is at least some truth to the argument all serious runners have heard at some point. Running really can be bad for you. We are all aware of how running can make your knees and feet feel. It is OK to admit that running isn’t always a good thing. Does that seem like an odd statement from a group called Run Richmond? Stick with me here and see if you don’t agree.

Multivitamins come and go in the popularity from what I can tell. It seems that one generation will be all about the vitamins and kids will grow up looking forward to their Flintstones Vitamin or whatever brand your parents may have bought and then they will be forgotten for awhile. I remember thinking of them as candy and begging to get them at the store. Sometimes my parents would buy them and I would get to have my “candy” that would also magically make me healthier. The fact is that our bodies really do need vitamins. The other fact is that a person that eats a balanced, healthy diet most likely gets all of the vitamins their body needs from their diet.

We all know that most Americans, Kentuckians even more so, don’t live the healthiest lifestyle. We don’t usually get the vitamins and nutrients in our foods that we need because fried foods and carbohydrates aren’t exactly packed with vitamins. Taking a vitamin can be a good way make up for a deficiency in diet. If you are a person that eats healthy a daily vitamins can actually overload your system with things that can be harmful in excess. Vitamins are good, certain vitamins in excess can be really dangerous.

That is what I can see as a perfect comparison to running. Our bodies really, really need us to move to stay healthy. A person with a healthy lifestyle shouldn’t need to add on extra moving (running) to maintain their health. The problem is that our society doesn’t generally promote a healthy lifestyle anymore. We don’t have to move to work, eat, or play. Vast numbers of people work at a computer or stand at a workstation, have food show up at the table prepared and ready to eat, and sit and stair at a screen for fun. These things mean that in general we need to find ways to increase our movement to get our body the exercise that it needs. Running therefore can be considered your movement multivitamin. Running or walking for 30 minutes a few times a week can make a big difference in your overall health. Going a little harder and making that 60 minutes can really increase weight loss and tone muscles, not to mention the positive changes for your heart and lungs.

What some runners don’t realize though is that just like eating Flinstone Chewables like candy, running for fun can be bad for you. If you are a person that runs more than 60 minutes numerous times per week you can actually be negating the positive affects on your body. The extra strain on your body to burn sugar and fat for all the fuel needed has been shown in studies to actually increase plaque buildup in your arteries. Clearly I am not saying running is bad for you. I am saying though that running, just like anything else can be bad for you if you over do it.

More than anything else I want Run Richmond to be a site that will encourage everyone to get out and move. What I don’t want is to ignore the fact that some people can get overly enthusiastic with things and end up doing more harm than good. If you are that type of person, be careful. Keep running a positive thing in your life not a negative. If you are a person that is needing to get moving to get healthy, ignore the people that will tell you that running is bad for your knees. Yes, your knees may hurt, but if you are like I was your knees probably hurt anyway. The positives from running and walking will almost always out way the negatives unless running becomes your Flinstones vitamins that you eat like candy.